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Enter a chance to Win a Free Homeschool Portfolio!

CONGRATULATIONS TO DEBORAH CODY AND MELISSA, THE WINNERS OF THE PORTFOLIO GIVEAWAY results were determined by using random.org

I know many of you are beginning to plan next year’s school year and are thinking about having a portfolio review for your student. No? That’s okay! Perhaps I can start you on that process. 🙂

You can enter a chance to win one portfolio review ($40.00 value) in five different ways. Each way will give you 1 chance to enter. I will choose 2 winners and you may schedule your appointment with me between March 1, 2014 and August 8, 2014. Contest ends January 28, 2014 and the winners will be picked at 5:00 a.m. on January 29, 2014.

1. Become a follower of my blog (if you aren’t already). If you become a follower, please let me know in the comments below so I can enter you in the contest and welcome you!

2. Tell a friend about my blog.

3. Leave a comment about why you choose to do a portfolio review.

4. If you have a blog, please repost this. Let me know too so I can drop by and say hello!

5. If you are already a follower, just say hello and say how your year is going up to this point.

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36 thoughts on “Enter a chance to Win a Free Homeschool Portfolio!”

Why I chose to do a portfolio review…Last year was my first year to homeschool and to meet Lisa. I must say there are several reasons why we chose this pathway of portfolio but the two main reasons were…to help take the pressure off my son who already needed to catch up in his learning coming from a public school setting where I quickly found out he had not been taught many of the fundamentals that he needed for his grade level. I did not want him thinking of testing at the end of our year and become stressed about it. Rather, I wanted him to be able to just concentrate on the joy of learning. The second reason I am glad that I chose to go with a portfolio review was the opportunity to meet with Lisa and to experience as a Mother someone who has been there and done that, reassure me that I was indeed on the right pathway educationally with my son, but most importantly, she offered prayer for the coming year and encouragement to me to stay on the homeschooling path. It gave me the opportunity to express what we learned, and reflect back on those milestones. I didn’t realize until I had personally sat down to compile the review for her what all we had done and what we had accomplised together, my son and I. If I had opted for a test I don’t think I would have been able to have gotten a good scope on the full picture.

We choose to do a portfolio review because it is an excellent opportunity to sit down with another educator and get a different perspective! Lisa gives me wonderful suggestions and is able to see things that I may not be able to see. I love the additional insight and resources that she is able to give me!
My husband and I look forward to seeing you again at the end of the school year, Lisa!

We chose portfolio review for a couple reasons. One is that I think the feedback is very valuable. We are still new to this and learning a lot. The other is that my children are still young and testing could be quite stressful.

Emily,
I agree that testing can be stressful. It also is a snapshot of two or three days of a child taking tests, and not providing an overall picture of what is done throughout the year if a child is not familiar with taking standardized tests. For many homeschool students this is their only experience of test-taking since many parents don’t test in this fashion throughout the year. It is a skill that has to be taught if a child is to be familiar with what is being asked, filling in bubbles, and monitoring their time for the test.

Portfolio review has been our choice every year since 2000 when we began homeschooling. We chose this option because it allowed us the opportunity to personally share our school year accomplishments and struggles with an educator and other homeschool mom. Lisa has been our reviewer every year since the beginning and has provided more inspiration, encouragement and advice than I think she will ever know. But I thank God for placing the ministry in her heart to bless the local homeschool community continually and my family as she does in our short time together each summer. As a parent who has been homeshcooling for 14 years, I would highly recommend a portfolio review yearly for everyone. However, I understand that there are personal reasons some choose to test and I support whatever each family chooses. That said, I would still recommend a review in the early years to gain the benefit of encouragement and reassurance and then perhaps alternate every other year of testing or review.

I am new to home-schooling my 12 year old daughter (this is our first full year). My daughter was in public school until the third grade. While at public school she was not doing well because she was not testing well and as we all now public schools do a lot of testing. For her fourth and most of fifth grade she was in a private school. She did well in the fourth grade because the staff took extra time with her to make sure she was understanding everything and she was the most improved student at the school for that school year. In the fifth grade a new student came to the school and in November of the year he started picking on her and he was leaving physical marks on her. The school did nothing and blamed my daughter for what was happening. And at the same time she was failing all of her classes. In January of last year, while she was still going to private school I began to re-teach her everything she learned each day in the hopes that her grades would improve, and they did. But with the combination of the bullying and the poor teaching I had no choice but to take me daughter out of that school. My daughter also has problem with the way she learns. This is due to a lack of oxygen at birth (she had a heart defect that caused the lack of oxygen and she had open heart surgery to correct the defect). She sees the underdevelopment team at Children’s hospital every year (her next appointment is next week). They have told me that she will not test well because of her learning issues. If she were to go back into public school she would be place on a 504 plan because of her issues. Home-schooling is the best way I can make sure she is learning without the stress of testing all the time. I would love to have a portfolio done because it is going to give me the most accurate account of what she is learning and how best to make sure she is understanding what she is learning. No matter the outcome of the contest I will still choose to have a portfolio done because it is going to be what is best for my daughter.

I chose a narrative each year for my 14 year old daughter. She works hard and is smart, but tests do not hold her attention. She is imaginative and tends to daydream, so she doesn’t always do as well as she can. Tests for her are not a good assessment of what she has learned during the year.

Those tests are long! It’s great that we have the option of portfolio reviews since not all students test the same. I believe there was great wisdom from the people who created the end of the year evaluation process for homeschoolers here in Ohio.

I plan to do a portfolio because my daughter is still very young and we are new to homeschooling. Testing at her age, while it may assist me in some ways, will not give an accurate view of what she did and learned this year. I feel a portfolio will be more accurate representation of what she has learned.

I have been homeschooling for 9 years. Last year I very nervously sought out Lisa for a portfolio review on my youngest daughter. It was a wonderful experience! My older children were fine test takers and I thought it was easier just to have them tested. However, my younger daughter has had some challenges (many physical) and I didn’t feel testing would be a fair representation of what she has accomplished to date. I also wanted some feedback on her progress and suggestions on how to help her. I was not disappointed! Lisa had great suggestions on her blog and over the phone on what to bring to the review and reassured me that it wasn’t really that complicated! I appreciated her focus on whether the child was progressing through the year and made helpful suggestions to keep moving forward. In the end, it was easier than I thought and I walked away feeling encouraged. I look forward to having my daughters progress reviewed again this year.

Hi Judy and welcome! Thanks for following my blog. Send me a message if you ever want me to address an academic area or concern you have on your homeschool journey. I started attending homeschool support groups when my son was 3. 🙂 I became a support group leader when he was a preschooler. Think I was ready for homeschooling? lol 🙂

I am planning to do a portfolio review this year because I am very Type A and don’t want to feel overwhelmed when we are officially, legally homeschooling. My daughter is 4 1/2 and we have been doing some Kindergarten level work this year (mostly just phonics and math). I am doing a portfolio this year as part of our “dry run.” Thanks! Judy Adams

Hi Lisa! I do a portfolio review for several reasons. 1) I don’t think all first and second graders are prepared to be excellent “testers” and would prefer my child not be “labeled” at this young age. 2) Our curriculum as a home school is not identical to current state tests, which can cause results to appears skewed. 3) I think that a portfolio assessment is the best and most well-rounded way to assess all of the learning that is taking place throughout the year, measured according to my sons’ personal abilities and not against every other child in the state. 🙂

Lisa, I posted your blog on FB! You know I love your portfolio reviews! I have learned so much from you and have been able to enhance our homeschool experience by tapping into your knowledge as a resource. You do a fantastic job of accounting for the boys’ unique learning styles and recommending resources that mesh with that. Despite being 6 years into our homeschooling journey, I always learn something new from you. Thanks for being such a blessing to my homeschooling. Shelli